Increasing Productivity

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Man I really suck when it comes to productivity. I can spend all day in bed ect and then feel guilty about it. Only when my deadline is a week away will my work rate increase loads.

So my question is - how can I increase my productivity? Unless I am forced to do something by some external pressure, I will never do it. I was told that I should do these things but I never got round to it:

Set interim deadlines - perhaps a weekly deadline to get work done

Change your environment - problem is that library closes at 5pm and I wake up at 2pm. lool

10 minute rule - tell yourself you'll be productive for 10 minutes. Problem is I get so distracted by youtube by then.

Honestly my motivation is so poor. I have wasted so much time on youtube its unbelievable.

Any help would be appreciated - I really need to smash this dissertation to make up for a rocky set of exams.

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So my question is - how can I increase my productivity? Unless I am forced to do something by some external pressure, I will never do it. I was told that I should do these things but I never got round to it:

[...]

Honestly my motivation is so poor. I have wasted so much time on youtube its unbelievable.

The idea that you require some external pressure doesn't necessarily mean that your motivation itself is poor. Maybe it's just the particular task or goals in mind that is causing you to feel such lack of intrinsic motivation.

In that train of thought, you are possibly caught up in a tango between two psychological systems: One of them is reminding you of the importance of exams, grades, career, money, academic status, and so on. The other is trying to calm you down from the aforementioned burdens and pressure-inducing goals (i.e by distracting you with things that are more mentally engaging than studying). Perhaps it's also a search for things that do motivate you. You are gravitating more towards the latter which, in my opinion, isn't a bad thing if you can at least maintain a positive attitude towards it and not over-procrastinate. A little bit of procrastination isn't bad, because it is thought to play a role in relieving some stress and thereby can help you become more productive in a more creative and healthy way (instead of making you "productive" only in the usual and culturally-defined way as most people aim for).

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I understand where Spud is coming from. He's watching YouTube because he wants to live vs study, Well, I think there's a part of us that realises that grades aren't everything, that a passing exams or assignments aren't an indicator of intelligence. That isn't motivating.

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Man I really suck when it comes to productivity. I can spend all day in bed ect and then feel guilty about it. Only when my deadline is a week away will my work rate increase loads.

So my question is - how can I increase my productivity? Unless I am forced to do something by some external pressure, I will never do it. I was told that I should do these things but I never got round to it:

Set interim deadlines - perhaps a weekly deadline to get work done

Change your environment - problem is that library closes at 5pm and I wake up at 2pm. lool

10 minute rule - tell yourself you'll be productive for 10 minutes. Problem is I get so distracted by youtube by then.

Honestly my motivation is so poor. I have wasted so much time on youtube its unbelievable.

Any help would be appreciated - I really need to smash this dissertation to make up for a rocky set of exams.

Join the club, bruh. I have all the ideas in my head but can't get it out onto paper because I keep getting distracted by a million things. I think I may never finish this PhD because there really is no deadline (unless I run out of funds lol-it's cheap at my uni).

Those 'how to' guides to get with procrastination have never helped me. Deadlines are the only thing that have ever driven me and made me produce. You need to find ways to force the productivity. One thing that helped me was being in a writing group. The thought of coming to a meeting with nothing to produce gave me immense anxiety and helped me to write and to set deadlines for myself.

Have you considered disconnecting from the internet? So download whatever you need to read and then write in a place where you have no access to wifi or anything and that may force you to write because you don't have the internet to distract you.

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in my experience, motivation is dependent on your physical and mental condition. If you are sleep deprived, if you are physically unfit (lacking energy) you will struggle with productivity. The academia promotes sleep deprivation and very bad eating habits.

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in my experience, motivation is dependent on your physical and mental condition. If you are sleep deprived, if you are physically unfit (lacking energy) you will struggle with productivity. The academia promotes sleep deprivation and very bad eating habits.

I agree with this. I try to tell people that if you're not stable whether that is financially or otherwise you shouldn't go onto the courses I did. But they tell me that afterward, you might not get the chance, but older people do return to studies. It's better to be ready than regret.